Bookplanet: John Fowles dies

The writer of "The Collector," "The Magus" and "The French Lieutenant's Woman" is dead. For those of you who weren't around in the 60s and 70s, seldom has a serious novelist so dominated discussion -- as well as the best-seller list. Fowles was that rare thing -- a very serious writer, in fact a post-modern one, who is wildly popular. Movies were made of all three novels. Perhaps Houllebecq is the only example today, except he does not have the audience in America that he has in Europe. And his novels have not been filmed yet. NY Times obit here.